NEW WORLDS

SummaryMy work examines ephemeral moments of wonderment found in the natural world and built environment. It explores the possibilities of representation using found light, colour and objects. My work translates experiences of awe into a visual language.

My recent body of work gathers together a variety of materials and methods including small woven works, found objects from nature, photographic prints on glass and a series of small paintings. These mediums, previously presented individually, now come together to create a layered exploration into the experience of wonderment and quiet moments of reverie.

BackgroundMy practice draws from the complex historical and cultural legacy of the sublime, particularly the ideas of philosophers Immanuel Kant and Edmund Burke. The concept of transcendence provides an important historical background to my practice, as does the idea of the emotional effect of the natural world and built environment. While acknowledging the 19th century Romantic tradition of the sublime in painting in which an original experience is rendered as grandiose and extreme; I, in contrast, locate my work in relation to a series of arresting but passing moments. I frame these experiences within contemporary ideas of beauty, a beauty which is associated with quiet moments of contemplation and the experience of enchantment and wonder. I have also applied elements of Merleau-Ponty’s notion of The Phenomenal Field to produce works that engage with the lived experience of perception through a restrained use of colour, light, imagery and scale.

DisplayThe Chapter House windows provide the perfect Wunderkammer-like context for the various components of New Worlds to come together. The works will be installed throughout the three windows to create an ebb and flow experience for the viewer, with a consciousness around space for pause and reflection.